The Origin of Katz
by survivorofgallopfrey
Summary: My name is Katross. I met Katz a few days after my parents died. He was the only friend I had at the time, but he was imaginary. Or so I thought. I found out that he was more than your average imaginary friend too late to do anything about it. This is how I met him, and how not realizing that in time lead to my death.


**The Origin of Katz**

I don't have a lot time to tell this story, but I will try to tell it as thoroughly as possible in the amount of time that I do. Please excuse any spelling errors.

My name is Katross, and I am a cat. Not the kind of cat that you'd see walking around on four legs and eating catnip. I am the rare kind, which actually walk on two legs, can actually talk like a human, and lives in a house owned by my kind of cat. They're not that common, but they do exist. I had very white fur when this story began, but it's another color now. You'll find out why.

I was a cowardly child. I admit it. I tried overcoming my fears many times, but to no avail. I was afraid of humans. I was afraid of swimming. I was afraid of being on an airplane (which my parents usually ended up taking me with them on quite a few of them for business trips, because they wanted me to see more of the world than just our home in Nebraska). I had an irrational fear of movies. I jumped at every little noise I heard at night. I was afraid of the dark, so, at age twelve, I still slept with a nightlight, but the shadows it ended up creating were worse than having no light at all.

I lost my parents, at age twelve, on September 5th, 1987. They had taken me with them on a business trip to the small town of Nowhere, Kansas. My mother had to be there to film an advertisement for a new flavor of cat food, made by a company that they had an investment in. It was after the shoot that my parents decided to go to a local diner for dinner. My father had a brilliant idea for a shortcut to get to the place, through a dark alley. He figured the worst that would happen is that they'd have to turn around and go back. That was a deadly mistake.

We were about halfway through the alley, when a human with a gun jumped in front of us. The worst part was the gun was aimed at my father. "Give me all your money at once, kitty, or I'll blow your brains out!"

"Okay," said my father, reaching into his coat pocket. "Just calm down. Here it is." He held out his wallet to the man.

The man snatched the wallet out of my father's paw. And just a mere second later, I heard a loud BANG and I turned around to see my father collapse, with a bleeding hole in his head. "Clyde!" my mother cried out. And then, as she was kneeling down to mourn her husband, the man killed her, too.

Now I was frozen with fear from the moment the guy jumped out on us. It took my mother being shot for me to realize that I was next, and that realization unfroze me. I took off at a run and dived into a large garbage container. It smelled pretty rank in there, and I felt a sharp pain in my side, as though it had just been cut with a piece of broken glass. I waited in there for the man to leave. I couldn't hear if he had left or not, but I did, however, hear police sirens.

When I could no longer stay underneath that garbage due to a lack of air, I raised my head up above the garbage level, and saw the police examining my parents' bodies. I would have gone up to them and gave them my testimony, but there was not a single non-human police officer among them. Remember, I'm terrified of humans. At least when I had my parents with me, I felt somewhat safe around them, because I thought that they could protect me from them. I now saw that I was wrong to believe that.

I watched as the police investigated the scene. They seemed to be rather incompetent, because they couldn't figure out that the murder victim's child was watching from the nearby dumpster. It's no wonder why… Well, I'll get back to that later.

After the police left the scene and my parents' bodies were taken away, I leapt out of the garbage, and stood next to the chalk outlines of my parents, and took a moment to pay my respects to them. As I was doing so, I realized that I had been crying so much in that dumpster, that my eyes were now all dry and puffy.

As much as I would have liked a shower and a nice meal, I was still too frightened of humans to leave that alley. Nowhere was an almost entirely human-populated area, from what I was able to tell from what I had seen of it before this incident. So, I stayed there. For days. Weeks. All alone.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, isn't this supposed to involve the origin of someone named Katz? Well, yes. It is very much so. But, I had to tell you about all of that beforehand, because, if it wasn't for that particular incident, I never would have met Katz. Actually, I suppose that the correct phrasing would be that, I never would have CONCIEVED of Katz.

It was about nine days since I lost my parents. My fur had become a very disgusting mix of brown dirt, yellow mustard, red ketchup, and a very sticky substance that I thought was either grease or syrup (but I wasn't so sure). I was pacing around in the alley, making sure not to get too close to the ends of the alley, so that humans wouldn't see me. I was thinking about how much I wish I had a friend to talk to. One who would be willing to stay there in that alley with me. That's when I met him.

I had heard, behind me, a deep British accented male voice say: "'Ello there, dear boy." I turned around and saw another cat (my kind of cat), who was around my age and height (as I've come to realize, he's my EXACT age and EXACT height), and actually looked a bit like me (he actually looked just like me, now that I think about it). The difference in our appearance is that his fur was blood red, with purple on the top of his ears, his nose, and three purple stripes on his back. Also he had very different eyes; while my eyes were blue cat eyes, his eye color was a very odd yellow. And then there was the fact that his head was tilted down and he was looking at me by looking upward from the tilt. In all, his appearance was kind of freaky.

Of course, since he was kind enough to talk to a filthy homeless cat like me, I wasn't going to say that to him. "Hi," I told him. "Thanks for choosing to talk to me. I've only had a few rats and stray domestics to keep me company for a while now. Not to mention that the rats…" I was going to say, "Not to mention that the rats have been my source of food," but I was afraid that would make this strange cat leave, and that certainly wasn't what I wanted. "Never mind what I was about to say," I said instead.

"Oh, I think I know what happened to the rats, dear boy," he responded. He held something up for me to see. It was one of the half-eaten corpses of one of the rats. "Brier Rat. How'd he taste?"

"He was okay. I prefer my rodents cooked, though," I responded.

"So do I, dear boy. So do I. Especially when barbecued and served with corn."

"Oh my god! That is exactly how I like them!"

"Really, now? How interesting." He paused for a moment. "I've just realized, I haven't properly introduced myself yet. I'm Katz. Who are you, dear boy?"

"Nice to meet you, Katz. My name is Katross," I told him.

"Nice to meet you, too, Katross. I hope you don't mind if I stay here with you, do you?"

Something occurred to me just then, that I don't know why didn't occur to me before. "Katz, are you real?"

Katz thought about this question for a moment. "Well, it depends on what you mean by 'real'."

"Then, you're either an imaginary friend I've somehow created, or a hallucination."

"Does that mean you don't want me?" he asked, with a sad look in his eyes.

I sighed. "I suppose any kind of friend, even an imaginary one, would be nice to have to keep me company, while I live here, eating rats for the rest of my life." I sat down on the ground and motioned for my new friend to do so as well.

"Thank you, Katross," he said, doing so. "Not many kids your age would be so considerate to a figment of their imagination."

"You're welcome. Well, I suppose that it might be in part of the fact that my parents recently died, and I could use some comfort."

"Yes, I know that. That scary human shot them, correct?"

I was shocked by what he just said. I hadn't mentioned anything about my parents' deaths to him before, nor the way that they died. How did Katz know that?

"Oh, sorry I didn't tell you this earlier," he told me, apologetically. "I'm not like other imaginary friends. The two of us are more connected than you think. I can read your thoughts and memories. I hope you're okay with that."

I was rendered speechless by that statement. He could read what I was thinking at this very moment? This was actually very unnerving. I was starting not to like Katz as much as I had at first. I'd hate to have ended up having a conversation about something embarrassing I did when I was younger, or that I'd think of something that would upset him.

"Don't worry, Katross. I'm not going to talk about anything embarrassing you did when you were little. Any topic about your memories that you're uncomfortable with talking about, I won't bring up. I swear. Also, if you do end up thinking of something that upsets me, I will tell you immediately, so that we can be perfectly clear on how you didn't mean that the way I understood it, or come to an understanding, so we can just move on from it."

I paused for a moment. "That sounds okay, I guess," I finally said.

"Good. Now, I know that you haven't been getting much sleep lately, because of your fear of the dark. Would you like to get some sleep, if I stay awake and watch over you?"

"Do you promise not to go anywhere without me?" I asked.

"Cross my heart and hope to die," Katz responded, crossing his heart with his right paw.

I laid down on the hard dirty ground and tried to get some sleep. Strangely, I went under deep sleep much faster than I thought I would have. I didn't dream.

When I woke up, it was night, and Katz was sitting right where he promised he would. But there was one difference: there was a bushel of fresh apples lying in front of him. "Ready for some real food, again, Katross?" he asked me.

"Katz! You promised not to go anywhere!" I exclaimed.

"Correction: I promised I wouldn't go anywhere without you. You had gotten up shortly after you had gone to sleep and you told me that you wanted something to eat. So, I took you down to the local grocery store, and got a whole bunch of juicy red apples for us both to share. Instead of eating any of them after we got back, however, you just went back to sleep. I guess you were sleepwalking or something."

"Huh? How did you get apples from the grocery store when you're imaginary? How did you pay for the apples when neither of us has any money, or at least not real money? And why do I not remember that dream?" I asked him.

"To answer your third question first: not everyone remembers their dreams. To answer your first question: I told you, I'm not an ordinary imaginary friend. And to answer your second question: Well… I didn't exactly pay for them."

"WHAT? You stole them! You're just like that robber!"

"No. I am NOT like that robber. That robber killed your parents for the paper in his wallet. I, however, didn't hurt anyone, and only stole apples."

I hesitated before responding. "I guess you're right." I actually figured that the apples weren't even real, and were just part of my imagination taking over. I didn't tell him that, but he probably already knew that, and he didn't even mention it.

He picked one up and held it out to me. "Eat up, Katross." I reached out and took the apple from him. It certainly felt real. I took a bite, and any doubts I had about them being real were blown away. It felt so good to eat something so fresh, sweet, and juicy after so many days of eating dead rats. If Katz hadn't reminded me that it's not healthy to eat the core, I would have done so. I finished that apple and had another. I actually ate a total of three apples before I stopped, fully satisfied.

"Now, I will not be able to get these all of the time, Katross," Katz told me. "So, we'll want to savoir the rest of them."

I nodded. I was beginning to not be too sure about how I felt about Katz, but I did know that he was useful to have around. That is why, for so long, I didn't get rid of him. I wish, now, that I had done so sooner. Or even the moment I met him. But it's too late for me to do so now.

I kept Katz staying with me for about a year, which was enough time for me to begin to notice some strange occurrences that have happened ever since I had created him. I began to have sudden lapses in memory. For example: at one moment, I'd be filthy dirty and talking to Katz about a book I read when I was five, and the next I'd be completely clean (with wet fur, like I had just showered) and Katz would be talking to me about the Civil War. And then there are times, in which, I'd notice that the rats or the stray cats would completely change their direction, avoiding walking through Katz, even though he was imaginary and they couldn't possibly be able to see him. Then there are times in which he would be talking to spiders, particularly ones that he says are females, and would talk to them like you would talk to a woman you want to hook up with (that was the one thing about Katz that freaked me out the most, because it was like he was sexually attracted to them).

Then, on the one year anniversary of my parents' deaths, I had a lapse in memory again. The sun was shining in the afternoon one minute, and the next it was dark and it was raining. Kats was sitting right in front of me with a demented grin on his face. The look on his face really creeped me out. I felt a warm sticky fluid on my front paws. I looked down at them… They were covered in blood from the elbows down. And a bloody knife lay at my feet. My eyes widened as I saw this.

I looked back up at Katz and yelled: "What the fuck is going on here, Katz?"

"Your parents have been avenged," was what he immediately responded with.

"Oh god, no! I would never kill anyone! I'm too big of a coward to do something like that!" I exclaimed.

"You may be a coward, but the other you is not."

"Other me? What the hell are you talking about?"

"Ever heard of split-personality syndrome?"

"I have split-personality syndrome?"

"Yes. Some cases of split-personality allow for both personalities to be active at the same time, and allow both personalities to communicate with each other. Sometimes they both speak to each other through the same mouth. Other times the second personality speaks to the other in the form of an imaginary friend."

If it were possible for my eyes to get any wider from that statement, they would have. That explained so much. That explained how Katz got food when I was "sleepwalking". That explained my lapses in memory. That explained why Katz was able to read my mind and know my memories. He is my other personality, and he had been taking control of my body in during my lapses in memory. That meant… I DID kill that robber, but I wasn't consciously aware of doing it.

Then a thought came to my mind. I can get rid of my other personality, because he's an imaginary friend, right? If I just got rid of him, I'd be the only one in my body again, right? I decided to give it a try. I focused my mind on getting rid of Katz.

Katz just laughed at my attempt. "The more you try to get rid of me, the more of yourself you'll end up getting rid of."

I stopped focusing on getting rid of him after he said that. I searched my mind, to see if he was right that there was part of me I got rid of instead. I realized that I forgot the name of the elementary school I went to. I had forgotten the entirety of my favorite book. I also forgot my last name. All in those few seconds of trying to get rid of him. I don't know what all personality-wise I had lost.

"I wish you hadn't done that," he told me. "Friends don't try to get rid of friends, do they, Katross?"

I was terrified beyond belief. I couldn't even think of anything to say if I wanted to.

"It's going to be alright, Katross," he assured me.

"Like hell it will be!" I thought, unable to say it out loud.

"I will end your suffering. You don't remember any of the things I have done when I was in your body. So, if I take over your body permanently, you won't have to suffer being around those scary humans anymore." My heart was now beating so fast, I thought I was going to have a heart attack any second.

"A little game before you go bye-bye, dear boy?" he asked. He pulled a die out of an invisible pocket. "The game is simple, we each take one turn by rolling the die. The one who rolls the higher number loses. If you win, well, I can't remove myself from your mind, but I will never take control of you again. If I win," he gave a short evil chuckle, "you'll sleep forever." He paused to let that sink in. "I'll go first."

He then raised the die up and let it drop from his claw. It was a five. I had a two in three chance of coming out of this alive. Did I actually have a chance at coming out of this alive? If it wasn't for that little stroke of luck, I probably wouldn't have taken the die as quickly as I did when Katz told me to. I was going to shake it around in my claw, but Katz insisted that I just let it drop to the ground. So I did. I was on edge waiting for the result.

It was a six. I was doomed.

"How unfortunate. For you. But, oh well. It will be alright, Katross. Just go to sleep."

And with that, I blacked out for the rest of my life.

Now, clearly, since I'm typing this in order to put it on the internet, there were clearly moments in which I had gotten back in control, and this is one of them. Let me tell you some of the things that I had witnessed since then.

I'm not entirely sure how long this had actually taken, but, eventually, I regained enough consciousness to actually be able to see what Katz is doing, even though I had absolutely no control over his actions. I couldn't even talk to him, so I don' think he's even realized how much I have seen.

The first thing I had witnessed was him releasing man-eating spiders into a room of his Katz Motel, where a lesbian couple was doing you know what on the bed. I actually had to watch those things gnaw on the flesh of those girls, and listen to their screams of pain, because I wasn't in control to allow me to look away from it.

Since then, I have been witnessing everything that Katz did. I've noticed that he rarely ever sleeps, which is odd for a cat. I've noticed also that he has dyed my fur color to match the colors he had in my imaginary incarnation of him, but I don't know how exactly he changed the eyes, it's not like I've seen him taking out eye-color changing contacts or anything. I've noticed also that he is constantly being outsmarted by a pink dog (that dog is certainly courageous for doing so. I wish I could have been his friend).

There was one time, during that year in which I was still friends with Katz, in which he had asked me what I would have liked to have been when I grew up. I told him that I couldn't decide on one in particular. I told him that I'd like to be the manager of a hotel. Enter the Katz Motel. I told him I'd also like to work at a beach resort. Klub Katz. I told him I'd also be interested in making my own candy. Katz Kandy. I also said I'd like to be the captain of a five star cruise. Katz Submarine Cruizes. He has been taking the career ideas I told him and making them into his own cons of death.

Then there's oh no he's regaining control I'm afraid this is the …

…

…

…

…

I wish you hadn't done that, Katross.


End file.
